Saturday 23 February 2013 19.05 EST
First published on Saturday 23 February 2013 19.05 EST

Park Chan-wook is a South Korean writer, director and producer. Born in Seoul, Chan-wook worked as a film critic before filmmaking. Best known here for his Vengeance trilogy – Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Lady Vengeance (2005) – Chan-wook is a master of dark, violent films. Oldboy won the Grand Prix at Cannes the year that Quentin Tarantino (a fan of Chan-wook) was head judge. Chan-wook's English-language debut, Stoker, is a psychological thriller inspired by Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. It opens in cinemas on Friday.

Technology

Leica M-E digital camera

Leica's M-E digital camera.

I'm a long-time Leica user, even from the analogue film camera days. I own four Leicas.They are the perfect combination of function and aesthetics. The M-E is very sturdy and the lens is extraordinary. I'm a keen photographer and own more than 20 cameras of different brands. It was a dilemma for me to think about changing to digital photography. But now I've jumped on the digital bandwagon – I only bought this camera 10 days ago.

Music

Whenever I visit a city, I like to see what classical music concerts are on offer. When I was in the Netherlands recently for the Rotterdam Film Festival I had the opportunity to see the Eroica Project Orchestra, a student orchestra playing with period instruments, in a little church in a small seaside town near Hague. They played Beethoven's Symphony No 1 and 2 with instruments that were around when Beethoven was writing these symphonies with the authentic method used to play them. There's a humble beauty about listening to period instruments that I like.

Book

Affinity by Sarah Waters

Author Sarah Waters. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Observer

I've read all of Sarah Waters's novels which have been translated into Korean. They're dark, scary and erotic, and all deal with the subject matter of lesbianism. You might find it funny that I'd be interested in that, but it's quite fun to read and it's a subject matter that I'm curious about – this idea of love between two women. Waters does meticulous research to create a very authentic and vivid world, as if I'm travelling back in time to the Victorian era. Maybe I like authenticity and the idea of going back to the old times!

Film

Action films

A scene from the Korean film, The Berlin File.

I've recently seen two action movies directed by Korean directors. One is a Korean film, The Berlin File and the other is The Last Stand, an English-language film. The directors, Seung-wan Ryoo and Jee-woon Kim, are two of my closest friends, so I had to see their films. I know exactly what they went through during the production, so I was curious to see the result of the process. I don't usually go to see action films, I find them quite boring, but these were entertaining as they are so well-made: the action is part of the drama, it serves as a way to explore the character, not just action for action's sake.

TV

Mad Men

Jon Hamm as advertising guru Don Draper in Mad Men. Photograph: AMC

I don't usually watch a lot of TV, but Mad Men changed my perspective. I admire Matthew Weiner who came up with the idea and wrote such a great TV series, and the broadcasting company for being bold enough to air such a series. After seeing a season of it, I feel like the characters are my close friends because the actors portray them so vividly. But it's also made me want to pick up smoking again, even though I quit seven years ago!

Art

Juergen Teller at the ICA

Detail of Juergen Teller's photograph of Vivienne Westwood.

I saw this in London recently – I really like Teller's photography and already own one of his photo books. But this was the first time I'd been to one of his exhibitions. Teller's work is full of humour and it's provocative and erotic. To see his work exhibited was a new and shocking experience all over again.